The "Long Winter" of 1880/81 | The History Guy

YouTube ^ | February 24, 2021 | The History Guy

[SunkenCiv]

The winter of 1880/81, popularized by author Laura Ingalls Wilder’s 1940 novel “The Long Winter,” was variously described as “the hard winter,” “the black winter,” the “long winter,” the “starvation winter,” or the “snow winter.” Journalist J. Mark Powell wrote in January 2018: “Think you’ve seen severe winter weather? No matter how bad it is where you are, it can’t hold a candle to this, the Mother of All Bad Winters.” The History Guy remembers The Long Winter of 1880-1881.

This is original content based on research by The History Guy. Images in the Public Domain are carefully selected and provide illustration. As very few images of the actual event are available in the Public Domain, images of similar objects and events are used for illustration.

The "Long Winter" of 1880/81 | February 24, 2021 | The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

[SunkenCiv]

The winter of 1880-1881 was a historic winter, but devastatingly hard on settlers across southwestern Minnesota. This video explores the winter through the eyes of Joseph Bobleter, the editor of the New Ulm Review.

Winter of 1880-1881 in New Ulm, Minnesota | December 9, 2020 | Minnesota Bricks

[SunkenCiv]

[ClearCase_guy]

Well, I guess it was easier in those days. [/s]

Nowadays, due to climate change, we get a Storm of the Century every couple years. It’s amazing we’re not all dead.

[pnut22]

My favorite book of The Little House series. Wilder describes weather unlike I have ever seen in my 67 years on earth.

[smokingfrog]

There were more than a few very cold years back then.
Galveston bay froze over in 1886. Nine years later, southeast TX got 2 ft of snow.

[AZJeep]

Do you want the return of ice age?
Looks like many would prefer that!

[MileHi]

“Think you’ve seen severe winter weather? No matter how bad it is where you are, it can’t hold a candle to this, the Mother of All Bad Winters.” The History Guy remembers The Long Winter of 1880-1881

Maybe if we bankrupt enough western countries in the name of global warming we can have this again. /s

[alternatives?]

If they had had electric cars it would have been fine. /s

[SunkenCiv]

In my hometown, some of the older houses used to have doors on the second storeys, from the days before snowplows, and in remembrance of the 19th c winters.

[SunkenCiv]

I was trying to find one quote of LIW in particular, an exchange with a neighbor girl about how cold it had been the previous night. Couldn’t come up with it, or I should say, Google couldn’t. LIW was targeted by the Cancel Culture, so...

[SunkenCiv]

There was a bad one in 1882 as well, apparently. The coldest one I remember was in the past fifteen years or so, we got a few quite big snowfalls early one, then that pretty much stopped, but the temps stayed so low (”the high today was six!”) the big piles the plow had made stuck around. The last big pile near my workplace, dirty and solid ice by then, defied spring conditions until May.

[SunkenCiv]

If they had had internal combustion cars it would have been fine. /s

[SunkenCiv]

It would depend on the liberal urban death toll.

[dynachrome]

March 2003, near where I live. I was at work. Barely made it home. 2 hours shoveling to get into the driveway at 1 in the morning. Another 2 hours the next morning shoveling off the patio roof before it could collapse. Wet, heavy stuff.

Golden 4SW Jefferson
https://atoc.colorado.edu/~cassano/weather/march2003_snow/storm_total_snow.html 50.5

[WHATNEXT?]

So glad I found The History Guy on Rumble. Love history. Just watched the one about the Irish woman who joined the service as a man to hunt for her husband...what a life! Then the one about St. Bernard’s...I’ll eventually watch them all.

[hanamizu]

My favorite book of The Little House series. Wilder describes weather unlike I have ever seen in my 67 years on earth.

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I’ve read this to my students on several occasions and recommended it often. How tough and self-reliant people had to be back then is nothing short of amazing. My grandmother was alive (but only 1) during that winter. She was in Iowa.

[Chuckster]

The History Guy is one of my favorite YT Channels.

[Lurker]

THG is great.

L

[elteemike]

I well remember that storm...I was on shift the next day and spent a good bit of the night shoveling out of our cul-de-sac so I could get a run at the main street...

Busting up to 4’ drifts in my Ranger, in 4wd and all 4 chained up, I made it to work...Took awhile digging out of that one...

[dynachrome]

I had a Saturn. No bueno as a snow plow.